LW Sven Baertschi — The Flames freshman has had plenty of chances this season and hasn’t been rewarded. Frustrations are mounting. He came oh-so-close to nabbing his first NHL goal of the season Sunday against Vancouver but Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo foiled him. He’s on the verge of capitalizing. Will tonight be his night?

The Lines

* C. Glencross M. Stajan L. Stempniak

* J. Hudler R. Cervenka J. Iginla

* A. Tanguay M. Cammalleri S. Baertschi

* S. Begin B. Comeau B. Mcgrattan/T. Jackman

The Pairings

* M. Giordano J. Bouwmeester

* C. Butler D. Wideman

* T.J. Brodie D. Smith

* C. Sarich A. Babchuk

The Goalies

* M. Kiprusoff

* J. MacDonald

The Injuries

* C Mikael Backlund (knee)

THE SHARKS

Keep Your Eye On

G Antti Niemi — One of the top goalies in the league, the 29-year-old Finn played solid in the season opener against Calgary back in January at the Saddledome. That night, he allowed only one goal on 32 shots. Expect him to be another obstacle for the Flames tonight.

1. Welcome back Miikka — Earlier this week, the Calgary Flames netminder’s workload increased at practice which is good news. His return is imminent — maybe tonight, even. However, head coach Bob Hartley is erring on the side of caution. “The medical staff felt he was good to go with having his own net (Monday),” Hartley said earlier this week. “We’re very careful. But, at the same time, he told me after practice that he felt great, that he had no pain.” Kiprusoff has been nursing a knee injury since being hurt Feb. 5 at Detroit. Since his absence, the workload has been spread between three substitutes — Leland Irving, Joey MacDonald, and Danny Taylor. In that span, the Flames have gone 6-5-1-1.

2. Replacing Havlat — With Marty Havlat sidelined with a lower body injury, the San Jose Sharks summoned Bracken Kearns from Worcester on Monday. The 31-year-old Vancouver native had 13 goals, 17 assists and 63 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Sharks farm team this year. Prior to Tuesday at Vancouver, he had five games of NHL experience on his resume. However, the six-foot-one, 195-pounder (who also spent four seasons at the University of Calgary as captain) has a pedigree. His father, Dennis, played 677 NHL games as a Canucks defenceman from 1971 until 1981.

3. Climbing over .500 — The time is now for the Flames to jump over the mark, for the fifth time this season. “Certainly, it’s been tough for us to get over that hump and we see where we’re at in the standings. We’re a couple games away,” said Flames forward Alex Tanguay. “This is the time of the year you’ve got to take that step and move forward and get over that .500 mark and start getting closer to the middle of the pack.” Heading into Tuesday’s action, they were four points out of fifth place and four points out of 15th

4. New mask for MacDonald — After weeks of using his old mask from his days with the Detroit Red Wings, goaltender Joey MacDonald showed off his paint job which included a cartoon Mack Truck from the movie Cars — partly because of his young kids (Camden and Kendall are crazy over the Pixar flick) and partly because of his nickname (Mac). And, of course, it’s covered in flames. “It took some time but it was well worth the wait,” MacDonald told FlamesTV. “I’m just waiting to see who’s going to hit me first.” Since being plucked off waivers on Feb. 11, MacDonald has played seven games with the Flames posting a 3-3-0-1 record.

5. Ramo is rockin’ — Speaking of Finnish netminders, Karri Ramo has played a big part in Avangard Omsk’s KHL playoff run. In Tuesday’s Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarter-finals, he posted a shutout against Sibir Novosibirsk advancing the club to semifinals against Traktor Chelyabinsk. The 26-year-old is considered one of Calgary’s goalies-in-waiting although he’s bound to his KHL contract until April 30. Ramo, who became Flames property in the Mike Cammalleri deal of last winter, has been dominant in the KHL playoffs with a 0.949 save percentage and a goals-against-average of 1.27 in seven games.

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